Attenuating verbal overshadowing through color retrieval cues
Brandimonte, M.A.; Schooler, J.W.; Gabbino, P.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning Memory and Cognition 23(4): 915-931
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0278-7393 PMID: 9231436 DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.23.4.915
Accession: 008201606
Five experiments showed that interference resulting from verbalizing visual stimuli (verbal overshadowing) can be reduced by reintroducing visual cues present at encoding. Object color and background color were used as cues. Participants learned either easy- or hard-to-name figures and then performed an image rotation task. Before performing the imagery task, participants were re-presented with the color patch associated with each figure. Color re-presentation attenuated the impairment associated with easy-to-name stimuli (Experiment 1) as well as labeled hard-to-name stimuli (Experiment 2). However, background color cues had no effect on imagery performance (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 showed that naming the object colors at encoding makes color retrieval cues ineffective. Finally, Experiment 5 showed that object color cues can help participants to overcome previously exhibited impairment resulting from covert verbalization.